The 5 Best Website Builders for Photographers in 2022

The best website builders for photographers provide ample storage, creative portfolio layouts to showcase your work, a booking system, and ecommerce capabilities. We compared more than a dozen photography website builders based on cost, features, and our firsthand experience. We then narrowed this list to our top five―determining that Squarespace is the best website builder for photographers overall.

Here are the five best website builders for photographers in 2022:

• Squarespace: Best website builder for photographers overall
• IM Creator: Most affordable website builder for freelance photographers and artists
• Weebly: Best photography website builder for selling physical and digital work online
• GoDaddy: Great website builder for photographers who want to accept bookings online
• Bluehost Builder: Best photography website builder for WordPress users

Best Website Builders for Photographers at a Glance

Free Plan	N/A	*✔	✔	✔	N/A
Starting Price per Month	$12	$8	$6	$9.99	$9.99
Domain Cost	Free	N/A	Starting at $12 per month	Free	Free
Price to Sell Online	$18 per month	$14 per month	Free	$24.99	**N/A
Minimum Storage	Unlimited	Unlimited	500MB	Unlimited	50GB
Free SSL Certificate	✔	Starting at $14 per month	✔	✔	✔
Social Media Selling	✔	N/A	✔	✔	Plugin
Built-in Booking System	Add-on	N/A	***✔	✔	N/A
Gated Content	Add-on	Plugin	✔	✔	Plugin
	Visit Squarespace	Visit IM Creator	Visit Weebly	Visit GoDaddy	Visit Bluehost Builder

*Free to use for artists, students, and nonprofits
**Requires a plugin
***Through Square

Looking for something more specific? Try one of these…

• Need to boost your online presence? Check out the best site builders for search engine optimization (SEO).
• Create gated content for paying customers with these top membership site builders.
• If cost is your driving factor, choose an option from the list of the best cheap website builders.

Now let’s learn more about the best website builders for photographers and creatives who want to showcase their work in a visually appealing online portfolio:

Squarespace: Overall Best Website Builder for Photographers

Squarespace

What We Like

• Unlimited storage and bandwidth on all plans
• Sleek designer template library (all free with any plan)
• Can sell online without add-ons
• Built-in search engine optimization (SEO) features included with any plan
• 14-day free trial to test the product

What's Missing

• One of the pricier options, starting at $12 per month
• No free plan, unlike Weebly, GoDaddy, and IM Creator
• Plans aren’t all-inclusive—built-in booking tools and gating off content cost extra
• Advanced ecommerce tools are expensive
• Small number of third-party apps integrations; in contrast, Weebly integrates with tons of apps

Standout Features for Creatives

• Dozens of sleek templates designed to showcase photography, art, and digital portfolios
• Easy-to-use photography website builder (no coding necessary)
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth for content-heavy sites
• Mobile responsive designs—your site looks great on smartphones too
• Built-in website metrics track a visitor’s path, so you know which of your pages are most popular
• Additional features, like a booking system and memberships, are available for purchase as add-ons

Visit Squarespace

Squarespace may as well have been built to be a website builder for photographers because Squarespace puts design first. It’s an ideal choice for any visual artist who wants to showcase a digital portfolio. Plus, you can easily add your social media to your Squarespace photography website, so you can reach and connect both audiences to spread the word about your work.

Unfortunately, Squarespace’s plans aren’t all-inclusive. For example, to get features like a booking system, you’ll need to purchase an add-on for an extra $14 per month. For a cheaper way to organize client appointments, we highly recommend GoDaddy’s site builder, as its robust built-in booking system comes even with its most basic paid plan.

Squarespace is slightly on the pricier end with premium plans starting at $12 per month, but each plan is full of features to make your site and business thrive. In case $12 per month is a little over your budget, we suggest trying out IM Creator. IM Creator has sleek templates that can rival those of Squarespace, and as a bonus, it’s completely free for creatives to use.

Squarespace Pricing Tiers & Features

*On an annual billing cycle; monthly billing is available at higher rates

Designing a Site With Squarespace

Sample Squarespace portfolio showing the “Novo” template

Squarespace makes it easy to get started: Choose a template, click on “Edit,” and then start adding your own content in the easy-to-use editing interface. If you see an element on the page you want to change, double-click on it and a screen pops up with options.

Every template on Squarespace is free with your plan, which is one reason it also tops our list of the best site builders for small businesses. Of the more than 100 templates, almost half are designed with creatives in mind, making good use of white space and clean lines to better showcase your art, photos, or products. Plus, if you decide you like another template better, you can change it and not lose your content.

There is a slight learning curve with Squarespace’s new editor because it isn’t quite drag and drop, but once you get used to its style, you’ll find it’s second nature. Learn how to easily build a website with Squarespace quickly, step by step.

Our Expert Opinion

Overall, Squarespace is the best website builder for photographers because of its thoughtful template design, ecommerce features, easy-to-use editor, and helpful website metrics. Whether you want to sell, build an audience, display your digital portfolio, or book appointments for your services, Squarespace is the best option.

Try Squarespace

IM Creator: Most Affordable Photography Website Builder

IM Creator

What We Like

• Unlimited storage and bandwidth make it ideal for uploading media
• Cheap paid plans start at $8 per month and artists get free versions
• Cheap ecommerce plans starting at $14 per month
• Artists, students, and nonprofits can use the premium plan for free
• Built-in search engine optimization (SEO) on all of its plans

What's Missing

• No free domain on any plan, unlike all the other photography website builders on this list
• Very few third-party app integrations
• No marketplace integrations, meaning you can’t sell on Instagram
• No drag-and-drop editor, unlike Squarespace, meaning less customizability
• Ecommerce tools are very basic
• No built-in booking system
• Gated content requires a plugin

Standout Features for Creatives

• Sleek library of templates, with selections specifically for artists
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth for large digital portfolios
• Templates are mobile-optimized so your portfolio looks good on any platform
• Free premium plans for artists
• Built-in SEO features so you can attract more clients to your site

Visit IM Creator

IM Creator is a fairly new website builder with a template library that rivals that of Squarespace in sleekness. IM Creator is also known for its cheap pricing, which makes it ideal for solopreneurs and small photography businesses as well as individual artists. In fact, artists, nonprofits, and students can all gain access to the premium plan level for free, which is why it’s also on our list of the best free website builders.

Paid plans start at $8 per month and ecommerce plans start at $14 per month. Modern, visually striking templates, built-in SEO, unlimited bandwidth and storage, and super-low pricing all combine to make it one of the best website builders for photographers, unless you’re looking to sell your artworks online.

The downside is that IM Creator’s ecommerce capabilities are basic. It doesn’t integrate natively with any marketplaces, so you’ll have to embed an Etsy or Amazon store on your site. It also doesn’t have a large selection of third-party plugins, and lacks advanced ecommerce analytics. Although IM Creator is cheap, paying for Weebly’s ecommerce plan is more than worth it considering you get advanced ecommerce features and integrations for just $26 per month.

IM Creator Pricing Tiers & Features

*On an annual billing cycle

Designing a Site With IM Creator

A portfolio template from IM Creator’s library

IM Creator’s sectional editor is a lot more complicated than we expected, especially given its appeal to solopreneurs and artists who may need to build and manage their own website. Unlike the drag-and-drop editors you’ll find in Squarespace and Weebly, sectional editors are generally simpler and more intuitive to use. However, this isn’t the case with IM Creator.

Its editor is extremely clean and minimalist—so much so that it’s more of a hindrance than a help. Unlike GoDaddy, which is another sectional editor, IM Creator doesn’t have a fixed editor dashboard. Instead, you’ll have to click various symbols around the page to open up the necessary menus.

Still, building your site shouldn’t take more than a few hours. First, select a template and then click on the page section you want to edit. From the pop-up menu, you can choose to add, edit, or delete existing sections to flesh out your pages. It takes a lot of time—and clicking around—to get used to IM Creator’s editor, but it’s more than worth it for the sleekness of its design.

Our Expert Opinion

IM Creator’s design and features are top-notch, especially for the cost. You may not get extremely advanced features like a built-in booking system or advanced ecommerce, but it’s still one of the cheapest ways to get a beautiful and modern photography website up. Artists can apply to get the premium plan for free, making it a no-cost way to build a sleek online portfolio with basic functionalities.

Try IM Creator

Weebly: Best Photography Site Builder for Selling Work Online

Weebly

What We Like

• Ecommerce though Square with fixed transaction fees
• Ecommerce even on the free plan
• Easy-to-use editors (choose between drag-and-drop or point-and-click)
• Affordable plans, including a free forever plan
• Unlimited storage, bandwidth, and ecommerce starting at $12 per month

What's Missing

• Can’t switch between editors
• No template library for the Square Editor
• Outdated templates compared to Squarespace and IM Creator
• No third-party apps on the Square Editor

Standout Features for Creatives

• Easy-to-use inventory management tools
• Sell digital goods starting at $6 per month
• Sell on Instagram
• Gate off content to protect your work and give clients a place to view proofs
• Create coupons and gift cards
• Accept payments via PayPal
• Send abandoned cart reminder emails

Visit Weebly

As a website builder for photographers, Weebly is a good choice, especially if you’re selling online. If you’re interested in Weebly, you can sign up for the free plan and play around with the free features, including ecommerce functionality, for as long as you’d like.

Weebly recently teamed up with Square for ecommerce, so you get all the features of a Square Online account. If you plan to sell prints, other art, or products, this makes it really easy to quickly set up your online store.

Weebly is known as a cheap website builder, but keep in mind that on the Personal plan, your site will have Weebly branding and no custom domain name (i.e., your domain will look like www.yourdomain.weebly.com). Compared to IM Creator’s free premium plan with no branding, it’s a no-brainer which one to choose when it comes to building a professional personal portfolio.

On the other hand, upgrading to Weebly’s $12 per month option (which brings it to Squarespace’s level) is a viable option for selling your artwork. This is especially true since Squarespace’s $12 per month plan doesn’t come with ecommerce capabilities.

Weebly Pricing Tiers & Features

*On an annual billing cycle; monthly billing is also available at higher rates

Designing a Site With Weebly

A Weebly portfolio template

The type of Weebly website you choose determines which editor you will need to use. If you go with a small business website, you get the easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editor and can choose from 55 designer themes (seven of which are made for portfolio sites). The caveat with this selection is that your ecommerce features will be limited and the templates are more outdated.

If you choose the online store, you’ll use the Square Online editor. It’s easy to use but has more of a learning curve as it isn’t a true drag-and-drop editor. You also won’t have theme choices, as an ecommerce site starts with a generic design. However, you can change the layout to give your site a little more personality. Find out how easy it is to make a website using Weebly.

Our Expert Opinion

Weebly offers a handful of photographer website themes and it’s easy to set up an online store through Weebly (with ecommerce by Square) to sell your work online. This, plus built-in features like inventory management and marketing tools, make Weebly the best photography website builder for those who want to sell their work in both digital and physical formats.

Try Weebly

GoDaddy: Best Website Builder for Photographers With a Booking System

GoDaddy

What We Like

• Accept payments online
• Includes client management tools
• A free forever version and affordable premium plans starting at $9.99/month
• Robust built-in booking system, even on the Basic plan
• Great for content-heavy websites with unlimited storage and bandwidth on all paid plans
• Send email and text appointment notifications

What's Missing

• No SEO tools on the lowest-priced plan, unlike Squarespace and IM Creator
• Only provides basic ecommerce options compared to Squarespace and Weebly
• Very small theme selection per industry
• Outdated template designs
• Sectional editor, similar to IM Creator, but gives less customizability

Standout Features for Creatives

• Your clients can book one-time appointments or sessions on all except the free plan
• Integrates with social media accounts
• Gated content functionality
• Ability to send emails from the GoDaddy dashboard
• SEO tools available for Standard plan and up

Visit GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a web hosting company with a site builder that has lots of features that work well for wedding photographers. You can also set up your site to accept payments online.

GoDaddy offers a forever-free plan, but you’ll have a lot of GoDaddy ads on it, and your domain name won’t be custom. However, every paid plan comes with a free domain, secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, unlimited bandwidth and storage, and access to their booking features.

Unlike Squarespace and Bluehost, which require add-ons or plugins to be more functional (e.g., adding a membership area), GoDaddy’s plans are all-inclusive. For $9.99 a month, you get online booking and the ability to gate off content. This feature is also available on Weebly, but for $12 per month. This makes GoDaddy the cheaper option for creating locked or “premium” content.

GoDaddy Pricing Tiers & Features

*On an annual billing cycle

Designing a Site With GoDaddy

When using GoDaddy’s site builder, you have to select your industry from a list. You get a preselected template based on your industry, plus a handful of themes you can change to later on. Though it’s nowhere near as extensive as the design you get with Squarespace, the preset color themes and font pairings take the guesswork out of design.

You can adjust the layout of your website however you’d like to make it look more unique compared to the template you started with. If you want to move sections or elements, you can easily do so by clicking and dragging, or by using the mini menus.

There are fewer templates available on GoDaddy than other website builders for photographers, but the designs they do have are clean, although a little outdated. The seven portfolio themes emphasize images, making them perfect for wedding and personal photographers. Find out how to create a website with GoDaddy in just a handful of steps.

Our Expert Opinion

With GoDaddy’s site builder, built-in booking functionality is available with any paid plan, so it’s the best website builder for photographers who want to book appointments online. Premium plan subscribers can also accept payments online and send clients email and text appointment reminders, making it a great option for growing photography businesses.

Try GoDaddy

Bluehost: Best for Creating a Custom Portfolio Website

Bluehost

What We Like

• Low-cost plans starting at $9.99 per month ($2.95 per month on the promo)
• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor for WordPress
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth starting at $13.99 per month
• Unlimited customization via WordPress plugins

What's Missing

• No free trial, unlike Squarespace
• Long terms to lock in low prices
• Themes cost $39 to $69 each
• No native ecommerce or booking features
• WordPress integration isn’t seamless (unless you install WordPress)
• Gating off content requires a plugin

Standout Features for Creatives

• Extremely low-cost plans starting at $2.95 per month for the first year on their promo price
• Ability to install WordPress
• Plugin and theme libraries via WordPress extend functionality and design options
• Unlimited storage on most plans, and unlimited bandwidth on all plans

Visit Bluehost Builder

Bluehost offers a website builder integrated with WordPress, so you can easily design a custom website without any coding knowledge. Photographers or artists who want to build a custom portfolio website would do well with Bluehost as there are countless free and paid plugins you can use to change your site’s design, including portfolio layout plugins.

But it’s important to take note that the unlimited storage only applies to Plus plans and up. 50GB won’t be enough for most photographers and artists who want to display their work on their websites. If you need unlimited storage for cheaper than $13.99 per month, we recommend Squarespace, IM Creator, Weebly, and GoDaddy—all of which have unlimited storage and bandwidth for $12 or less a month.

Bluehost Pricing Tiers & Features

*On an annual billing cycle

Designing a Site With Bluehost

Bluehost’s WordPress editor

Bluehost’s website builder can work for photographers who want an easy way to build a website and don’t mind that it’s just a basic theme. It’s easy to add and edit sections, change colors and sizing, customize font selection, and more. To start, subscribe to a Bluehost hosting package and follow the steps to use the Site Builder and its drag-and-drop editor.

Bluehost becomes an even more robust option if you install WordPress—it opens up virtually limitless possibilities through the myriad of plugins and themes created for WordPress. However, this will require a little more technical know-how. For the most customization, use Bluehost as your hosting provider and then create a website with WordPress.

Our Expert Opinion

Bluehost’s Site Builder is a great starting point for building a photography website in WordPress. It combines not only the limitless customization WordPress offers, but you also get an easy drag-and-drop editor to build your site with. Find out more about why Bluehost is one of the best all-in-one solutions for hosting and WordPress websites in our Bluehost review.

Try Bluehost

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I make a photography website for free?

The short answer is, yes. The better answer is, you shouldn’t. A free website is going to be a subdomain (e.g., myphotos.hostingcompany.com) and display branding from the hosting company, which isn’t a very professional look. Photography website builders are surprisingly affordable and much easier to use, and some, like Weebly and GoDaddy, even offer free plans. Check out our list of the best free site builders for more options.

What’s the best way to sell my photography?

There are several ways to sell photography, including on your own website, through social media, or through print-on-demand (POD) websites. You can also consider selling to stock image sites. In case you’re selling other forms of artwork, you can open an Etsy store. Here are some more ways to sell your art online.

How much does it cost to build a photography website?

Depending on your needs, a website can cost less than $3 per month (with Bluehost hosting on their promo price), or into the thousands. You may need a logo, graphic design, website design, ecommerce features, or plugins. If you need professional services to build a site with any of these site builders, freelance web designers can be hired for as low as $5 on Fiverr. Learn more about how much a website costs.

How We Evaluated the Best Website Builders for Photographers

When searching for the best photography website builder, there are specific features and variables to consider. To do this, we analyzed dozens of the top site builders on a variety of factors, including those that matter most when building a digital portfolio to showcase—if not sell—your work.

After analyzing dozens of options, we determined that Squarespace is the best website builder for photographers overall. It has sleek, modern award-winning template designs, features for selling your work, built-in SEO, and an intuitive website editor that makes it easy to get your site up and running fast.

Visit Squarespace

Get detailed information on our evaluation criteria by clicking the tabs below:

Pricing

General Features

Features for Photographers

Portfolio Templates & Design

Support

Expert Score

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